Are You Tattoo Worthy?

Who doesn’t know the “Intel Inside” slogan or the Jack in the Box little cone heads on the antennas of lots of cars. It’s not too rare that you find people driving cars with license plates thanking their company (clearly an IPO situation when the person made a ton of money and is now driving a snazzy car – welcome to Silicon Valley!) or people wearing clothes with names on it – isn’t that how women flaunt designer handbags, clothes or shoes? Branding is everywhere and you can’t escape it.

Type in “John Deere tattoo” into your search engine and there are an overwhelming number of pictures of folks flaunting their green tattoo. A friend has her name tattooed on the back of her neck. Is a tattoo the ultimate form of a successful brand?

This past weekend I flew back from Denver, CO to San Jose, CA and on the flight back I read “Tattoos:  The Ultimate Proof of a Successful Brand” by Denise Wymore.  Denise was generous enough to send me a copy of her book. I love to read and was very excited to read her book knowing that she knows customer loyalty!

The book is a fun, funny and an easy read. But, I think I’m selling it short. It’s a great example of 9 brands that Wymore would tattoo on her body – one on her left shoulder, one on her neck, one on her upper right arm…

Throughout the book she goes through nine brands that she would tattoo on her body because she believes in them. Not only is she a satisfied “customer” but she’s loyal to them. It would probably take a huge earth shattering event for her to change her mind about the “companies” she’d tattoo on her body.

At the end of each chapter Wymore has five bullet points that she answers about each “company” she’d get a tattoo for:

-         the target audience

-         talking to the target

-         knowing the competition

-         making them irrelevant

-         staying loyal to their brand

If you don’t read the book (which would be a shame) at least look at the five bullet points and ask yourself those questions about the brand you’re trying to build whether it be you or your company.

Getting a tattoo is more than saying you like a brand. It’s saying that you believe in them and that when you’re 90 and your skin is saggy, you will still feel the same way (sorry for the bad visual).

Is your brand tattoo worthy?

“Things to Think About” for the Reference Professional

#crlp Have you seen customer loyalty changes after a merger or acquisition?

“Things to Think About” for the Reference Professional is a weekly blurb to get you thinking. You can find content here on this blog or at Twitter under the hashtag for Customer Reference and Loyalty Professionals #crlp.

Why is a Customer Reference program important for a company?

There are many different groups within a company that benefit from a Customer Reference Program but generally there are two groups that have the most impact – Sales and Marketing. These are the teams that tend to raise the most amount of noise as it benefits them the most.

On the sales side there are two main reasons for a Customer Reference Program. The lesser of important reasons is to promote customers “like us”. Prospects generally want to speak to a customer who is in the boat as them – same IT budget, same network setup, same employee size, same industry. By giving them customers to speak with who are like them, they can better see the value of your solution.

But, by far the most important reason for a Customer Reference Program from a Sales perspective is to let Sales focus on selling. It’s not always easy finding a customer to fit the need of the prospect and sometimes it takes 5-10 emails and 5 calls – and that’s just for one reference request! Now figure out how much time it takes to do each of those tasks, multiply it by the amount of time it takes to actually find the correct person to send the emails to or make the calls to. That, over the course of a week or quarter or year, can add up to a lot of time. Now, if you were the VP of Sales would you want to be able to hand over that task to someone who is specializing in finding reference or would you want your Sales person to waste valuable selling time looking for customers? (I hope if you’re a VP of Sales that that wasn’t a difficult question.)

Marketing folks tend to like reference programs because it helps to build brand recognition. By announcing customer via press releases or case studies or media opportunities, people start to find out more about your company. And, there’s no better way to promote your company than through third party validation. Me saying that I’m the coolest person I know doesn’t really hold a ton of value. But if Joe Shmoe tells everyone that I’m the coolest person he knows, then there’s more credibility there.

Having a person focus solely on customer references also reduces the chance of a customer being overused. If Sales person 1 and Sales person 4 are using the same customer for a reference call and then the Public Relations team jumps in and asks for a press release and the Field Marketing team asks the customer to speak at a seminar, there’s a good chance that the customer will become tired or irate. It is easily forgotten that you are not the only vendor the customer is working with so you have to be mindful of his/her time.

A centralized Customer Reference Program also allows for the most appropriate customer to be used for the most appropriate opportunity. With one person, or a team, focused on references it’s easier to keep track of the critical details of the customer so that all references given are the best references for that specific opportunity.

At the end of the day, the benefit of a Customer Reference Program is increased brand awareness and sales which then lead to increased profits. Are you sold on it?